Pub. 9 2019-2020 Issue 3

16 We recommend the following practices if you are holding your board meetings electronically: • Inform the public of what you plan to do. It is critical that you list on your posted agenda how the public can observe your meeting. The public needs to know if they can participate online or if they need to attend in person. Provide a means by which interested persons and the public may remotely hear or observe, live, audio or video transmission, and open portions of the meeting. Notice that the statute says the public must be able to “observe.” To prevent interruption (such as a Zoom “bomb”) from an observer, it is best practice to stream your meeting to a YouTube channel and not allow all participants direct access Open Meeting, COVID-19 Style C OVID-19 has brought many unique challenges to charter schools. Utah’s Open and Public Meeting Act (OPMA) sets the standard and expectation that the pub- lic’s business must be conducted in public. Even during a pandemic, your charter school board is required by law to follow the OPMA.